FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Sponsored by FlytrapStore.com

Ask questions about how to grow and care for Venus Flytraps

Moderator: Matt

By Will 90
Posts:  26
Joined:  Thu Jan 13, 2022 5:35 am
#414845
So I noticed a little bit ago some webbing in the soil of my VFT (inside a crater in the soil). I also noticed a few strings of webbing going across traps. The most damning evidence though was the aforementioned crater in my medium which seems to have a decent amount of webbing filling it.

When I first saw this I thought it was just a little spider living in my pot which I thought was probably fine.

Today though I happened to see a little bright red bug crawling around my plant. I googled it and found that this is most likely a predator mite which I read is actually beneficial to have and offers no detriment to the plant.

The fact that I have spotted that mite though leads me to believe that the webbing I spotted must indeed be spider mites rather than a normal spider (and that the bright red predator mite I saw must be here for that reason, to hunt them?)

I'm not sure what to do here though as I don't want to stake the life of my plant on the efficiency of my little predator mite haha. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

By the way, I attached some photos of the crater which the webbing fills, as well as some pictures of the plant overall. Not sure if the webbing actually came through on my pictures though. FYI I recently repotted my plant (around a month ago) due to my plant looking a bit unwell. When I did this I found some root rot which I removed. As you can see my plant is flat and I don't know if that is because of the root rot (I have only had my plant for a little bit and I don't recall whether it was flat when I got it... I got it in September time and so I may have ignored any flatness thinking it was to do with the time of year... One thing I can say is my plant definitely wasn't as flat as it is now. First growth since the repotting is coming through now as you can see... hopefully that goes up).

God bless,
Will
By Will 90
Posts:  26
Joined:  Thu Jan 13, 2022 5:35 am
#414847
Sorry heres the pics I meant to attach to the main post
Attachments:
D6B8C82B-C17B-4BC9-943D-6A340A81C060.jpeg
D6B8C82B-C17B-4BC9-943D-6A340A81C060.jpeg (3.35 MiB) Viewed 2439 times
circles.jpeg
circles.jpeg (1 MiB) Viewed 2439 times
circles b.jpeg
circles b.jpeg (977.35 KiB) Viewed 2439 times
B8185771-A6EA-46D8-98A8-4EA18E005E22.jpeg
B8185771-A6EA-46D8-98A8-4EA18E005E22.jpeg (3.37 MiB) Viewed 2439 times
By Will 90
Posts:  26
Joined:  Thu Jan 13, 2022 5:35 am
#414848
I circled the crater with the webs. I think it is a tiny bit visible if you zoom in on it.
By Will 90
Posts:  26
Joined:  Thu Jan 13, 2022 5:35 am
#414849
thepitchergrower wrote: Tue Jun 21, 2022 10:15 pm Another possibility is that the webs are caused by fungus gnat larvae...
Interesting. Are those harmful? Any advice on how to combat whatever it could be if it is indeed harmful to my plant?
By Will 90
Posts:  26
Joined:  Thu Jan 13, 2022 5:35 am
#414854
1:1 mix of peat and perlite. As I said above I actually repotted it about a month ago because it was looking bad and I found some root rot which I removed. I was hoping it would improve now. New growth hadn't come through until just recently a trap emerged as you can see in the picture. I'm hoping that it will be in better health.
By Will 90
Posts:  26
Joined:  Thu Jan 13, 2022 5:35 am
#414855
ChefDean wrote: Tue Jun 21, 2022 11:14 pm I'm not seeing the typical signs of spider mites, but that plant is in bad shape with possible mineral burn. What is it planted in?
If you could let me know if you have any suggestions as to what might be wrong with it / what I could do to resolve the issue(s) I'd sincerely appreciate it. See my above message too (I accidentally didn't tag you in that one)
User avatar
By Intheswamp
Location: 
Posts:  3275
Joined:  Wed May 04, 2022 2:28 pm
#414876
Where are you located? Looking at the grass it appears you may be in more northern latitude. Could it be that the plant has been sick (the mentioned root rot) and also in dormancy and it's just now beginning to stir from it's suspended animation? Time and patience will be needed for that.

Also, has the plant been in good light and did you wash your perlite before mixing your growing media?

Just some thoughts from a newbie.
Best wishes!!!
By Will 90
Posts:  26
Joined:  Thu Jan 13, 2022 5:35 am
#415142
Intheswamp wrote: Wed Jun 22, 2022 12:02 pm Where are you located? Looking at the grass it appears you may be in more northern latitude. Could it be that the plant has been sick (the mentioned root rot) and also in dormancy and it's just now beginning to stir from it's suspended animation? Time and patience will be needed for that.

Also, has the plant been in good light and did you wash your perlite before mixing your growing media?

Just some thoughts from a newbie.
Best wishes!!!
Hi thanks for your reply. No the plant has been growing new traps for a while now so I doubt that dormancy is the issue. I put it back into good sunlight in around March and it developed the redness to its traps etc. then.

No I did not wash my perlite before I mixed it into my medium. Should I have? I did a lot of research prior to repotting and I did see a couple people mention that I think, but most sources I found didn't so I thought it would be fine.

I really do think my plant has mites. Maybe initially it was sick with root rot and then now it has gotten mites after the root rot? After looking at my plant before I went to bed the other day I actually did see a few tiny little bugs running around on the pot. I hadn't seen those before.
User avatar
By Intheswamp
Location: 
Posts:  3275
Joined:  Wed May 04, 2022 2:28 pm
#415145
I don't know much else to tell you. Someone with more experience at this than I have might have more information. As for the perlite...yes, from my understanding during the manufacturing process basically any water available is used to keep the dust down....dirty water, salty water, etc.,. The first batch I rinsed amazed me at the gray milky color that it left the water. :shock: Yes, I definitely recommend that you rinse/wash your perlite. Best wishes with the plant!
Hello!

Welcome

Chilly in LA…

I've got a friend in Harvey, but that looks like […]

Hey all, just got my order in today and figured I'[…]

1 year old cape!

My cape is being evil. It died back when I did I[…]

The Sphagnum Yacht

We all love cotton...blue jeans, t-shirts, underwe[…]

I counted 21 in this one. Both are flavas that I g[…]

A few weeks back most of my VFTs suddenly put out […]

Counting to infinity.

2476

Support the community - Shop at FlytrapStore.com!